Press Briefing on "International Efforts against Terrorism"

As part of the ongoing international conference of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) being held in Vienna this week, a press briefing was held today at the Vienna International Centre.

Ambassador Inocencio Arias (Spain), chairman of the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, and co-hosts Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and Jan Kubiš, Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) addressed the media.

Ambassador Arias opened the briefing by thanking organizations and countries for their condolences over the terrorism acts committed in Madrid yesterday. He said that terrorism is one of the biggest challenges that the world is facing in the 21 ^st century, and if the international community did not act, it would stay. He called it a global problem, not isolated to western countries, and called for serious and effective cooperation that should not exist only on paper. He said that the CTC meeting held on 11 and 12 March in Vienna was aimed at precisely that goal.

Mr. Costa said that news of the senseless killing in Madrid came at the moment when the CTC, the  representatives and experts of the United Nations, and the OSCE as well as of dozens of their member states, were meeting in Vienna to explore ways and means to enhance joint counter-terrorism activities. "This latest brutal terrorist attack is another stark reminder of how important it is for the international community as a whole to join forces in facing this most vicious threat of our time," he said.

Mr. Kubiš pointed out that the attacks in Madrid emphasized how important and pressing the issue of counter-terrorism was in the present context. He said that the  CTC meeting was showing that this call for cooperation is upheld by our partners - up to 40 regional and sub-regional organizations and more than 70 Member States of the UN and the OSCE were participating in the Vienna CTC conference. He explained the OSCE's multi-dimensional approach to combating terrorism and elaborated on the various themes being discussed at the meeting, for instance, the issue of travel document security and the threat posed to civil aviation by Man-Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS).

A Question and Answer session followed the briefing.

In response to a question that a journalist raised, over whether the CTC call for international cooperation, if issued earlier, would have prevented the terrorism attacks in Madrid, Ambassador Arias said "not for sure. Even with international cooperation, one can prevent terrorists 49 times. Maybe they succeed the fiftieth time." However, he emphasised that international cooperation was vital to diminish terrorism substantially as when countries cooperate, it would make it difficult for terrorists to function.

He also revealed that post Sept 11, ratification of anti-terrorism conventions by countries had jumped in some cases up to 95 per cent. However, he said that ratification was just the first step, it was implementation that was vital. He also said that the CTC understood that ratifying and implementing laws was a complicated procedure, and that the CTC meeting in Vienna was exploring ways and means of helping these countries.

In response to a question on how much strengthening cooperation would help, till the root causes of terrorism like poverty, were not addressed, Ambassador Arias said that he did not see a direct link between poverty and terrorism, and pointed out that terrorism in fact, did not exist in the poorest countries of the world. He also said that he did not see any relation between a "freedom struggle" and "terrorism" as asked by the same journalist - "planting a bomb in a bus with innocent civilians in it is terrorism."

In a forceful reply to a question raised on whether it was true that countries were lagging in offering information on arrests made etc, Ambassador Arias said that he was not being diplomatic or "nice", but that he believed that the countries who had not ratified the conventions and treaties had genuine problems in terms of finances and will power. He also said that though the CTC had agreed not to mention names, if he was convinced that a country was not ratifying for other reasons, "he would resign and name names."

 The press briefing drew a full house, with journalists from a variety of international and national media represented. More than 44 media representatives, from TV (Reuters, ORF, ABC Madrid), Newspapers (Die Presse) and Radio (ARD Radio Wien, Bulgarian National Radio) attended, along with representatives of Permanent Missions.

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